The presently disclosed and claimed inventive concept(s) relate generally to mesoporous titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles, and more particularly, to a new type of TiO2 nanoparticles which are highly uniform in particle size and contain generally uniform intra-particle pores in the mesopore size range.
Porous nanoparticles, especially those with well defined pores and a narrow pore size distribution, have high application potentials in catalysis, as catalyst supports, adsorbents, in optics, photovoltaics, and filtration materials for separation. Control of particle microstructure allows control of physical and electronic properties, which, in turn, leads to new functionalized materials.
U.S. Patent Application Pub. Nos. 2006/0110316 and 2011/0171533 relate, respectively, to mesoporoous metal oxides and to a mesoporous oxide of titanium which can be produced by precipitating an ionic porogen and a hydrous oxide of the metal, i.e., titanium, compound comprising a titanium starting material, a base and a solvent, wherein the titanium starting material or the solvent or both are a source of the anion for the ionic porogen and the base is the source of the cation for the ionic porogen. The ionic porogen is removed from the precipitate, and the mesoporous oxide of titanium is recovered. However, there is a need for a process for preparing TiO2 nanoparticles that demonstrate consistent particle morphology, uniform particle size, spherical shape, and which contain uniform intra-particle pores in the mesopore size range.